Klarinet Archive - Posting 000760.txt from 1997/11

From: "Andrew Thompson" <awthomp@-----.com>
Subj: Re: professional wind ensembles
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 19:40:39 -0500

I must say I find it very disconcerting to find a music educator being so
discouraging and unkind towards the concert band. Any form of music should
be acknowledged as a valid medium, I would think. This scornful attitude you
exhibit towards bands would probably cause apoplexy on the list if a doctor
expressed the same sentiments towards the symphony orchestra. I am going to
invite some flames here too and suggest that perhaps the reason that "art
music" doesnt do so well and cannot support itself is because musicians who
play "art music" (a term i disagree with, as i feel that all music is art by
definition) make a distinction between themselves and popular music.
Skill or depth of composition or musical value doesnt determine musical
success - playing what people want to hear, does. Marketing, marketing,
marketing. We have a community band here that in 3 years has discovered it
needs a 50 thousand dollar annual budget, plays in the most expensive halls
in the city, and is thriving , because 1. it is good quality music. and 2.
it plays things people wish to hear.
Too many orchestras forget this, because we teach people that the orchestra
is "a superior medium for music." Maybe if we didn't show so much snob
attitude about it, orchestras might do a little better.

Andrew Thompson

>In no generation in history has the "everyday Joe on the street" been a
>consumer of orchestral music, or any kind of "art music." That has never
>happened, and never will happen.
>
>But this has nothing to do with love of music. It says more about
>nostalgia, being comfortable with the familiar, the weight of
>tradition, etc.
>
>> I am alarmed by the fact though that many students here have never
>> heard of Handel's Messiah or any major orchestral work.
>
>I too am concerned about that. Are you perhaps a music education major?
>If so, perhaps someday you will have an opportunity to work with your own
>students toward correcting that omission in the usual education in music,
>or lack of same, that students often receive.
>
>> the huge audiences that Drum Corps attract......
>
>This also has almost nothing to do with music.
>
>> there are less high school orchestras but almost every little school has
>> a band......
>
>This is because of the desire of high school administrators and members of
>boards of education to have bands to provide entertainment at athletic
>events.
>
>Hmmmm. Upon re-reading this message, it would appear that more than a
>little cynicism on this topic is cropping up on my part. Well, so be it.
>
>Ed Lacy